Title: Robert Abramovitz Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1964-1967

Creator:

• Abramovitz, Robert

Call Number: Mss 183

Quantity: 0.4 c.f. (1 archives box)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of a vice-chairman of the New Haven, Connecticut, chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, including routine administrative mail, arrangements for cultural events sponsored by the chapter, minutes, policy statements, and clippings. Much of the collection relates to the chapter's campaign to improve housing for urban blacks.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00183

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

In 1964-1967 the New Haven, Conn., chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality continued its campaign for better housing for blacks and other minority group residents of the inner city ghetto. The chapter published a list of specifications necessary in standard housing as well as lists of landlords refusing to meet these specifications; denounced municipal authorities for their passive role in tolerating substandard housing conditions; sponsored demonstrations; held meetings with the mayor's office; and sponsored boycotts of offending landlords. All of this activity resulted in only a token surrender from municipal authorities in 1965. To a lesser degree the chapter was also involved in publicizing impending civil rights legislation and in ending job discrimination against minority groups.

In this time period Walter Brooks served as chairman of the chapter, Robert Abramovitz as vice chairman, and Gene Schulze as corresponding secretary.

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin obtained these papers on August 31, 1971, from August Meyer and Eliot Rudwick, both professors at Kent State University, Ohio, who were then writing a history of the Congress of Racial Equality. Because Professors Meyer and Rudwick received these papers of the New Haven chapter from Robert Abramovitz, they stipulated that the papers be named after him, rather than the chapter, although they give only a fragmentary picture of the activity of either the chapter or Abramovitz.

The Abramovitz papers, spanning 1964-1967, include correspondence, minutes, policy statements, and clippings; and they have been arranged by type of material. Included in the correspondence is routine administrative mail; arrangements for movie showings and other cultural events sponsored by the chapter; and requests for information about the civil rights movement. The minutes document the meetings held with city officials in 1965 concerning a resolution of the housing question. Also in the collection are the chapter's public policy statements on such issues as housing, job discrimination, and a proposed New Haven community co-op. The clippings, primarily from the New Haven Register from 1963 to 1967, document the chapter's activities during those years.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Abramovitz, New Haven, Conn., August 31, 1971. Accession Number: M71-234

Processing Information

Processed by RB and Eleanor Niermann, July 24, 1971.

	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1	1965, Jan-April, 1964, Dec
Box   1 Folder   2	1965, May-Dec
Box   1 Folder   3	1966, Jan-Aug; 1967, Dec
Box   1 Folder   4	Minutes, 1965, March-April
Box   1 Folder   5	Policy Statements, 1965, March-May
	Clippings
Box   1 Folder   6	1963
Box   1 Folder   7	1964-1966